BAHRAIN government schools have been suffering for nearly three years after female teachers and support staff were given daily two-hour breast feeding time off, Education Minister Dr Majid Al Nuaimi told Shura Council members yesterday.
Around 3,400 female teachers and support staff members are now benefiting from the time off according to figures from last December, he said.
Dr Al Nuaimi also said the only solution the ministry had to cope with the shortage during those hours was to have more standby staff to fill in.
The minister stressed that teachers' time off was equivalent to three classes, while support staff time off was a third of the school day.
"When first introduced in the 2007-2008 academic year, 1,781 teachers benefited, but by the end of that year it jumped to 2,123 and then increased to 2,400 when support staff was also added," said Dr Al Nuaimi.
"Now we have around 3,400 teachers and support staff members and we are expecting the numbers to increase again.
"Those taking the two hours always prefer it in the morning, which means that they skip the early morning assembly, gate supervision and meetings, while those taking it at the end of the day skip extra curricular activities and tutoring classes.
"This also means that teachers and support staff are not available to respond to parents' queries or have less time to solve students' problems.
Dr Al Nuaimi was responding to a question by council services committee vice-chairwoman Sameera Rajab on the negative impact the two-hour time off has on schools.
"We can only assign the teacher 15 out of a possible 22 classes per week," he said.
"The teachers and support staff skip training courses, despite them being a requirement for further development and promotion.
"In some important subjects, we are facing a shortage and we are unable to find replacements."
Dr Al Nuaimi said that the only solution the ministry was forced to take was to increase the number of standby teachers. Ms Rajab said that the ministry was also forced to pay BD2.4m in addition to its original earmarked spending on schools to ensure that classes were not being disrupted.
"This clearly shows that this legislation was wrong in the first place, considering that it was an idea from Parliament without proper study for the negative impact it may have," she said.
"If this is the financial, administrative and technical loss in schools, what are the conditions in other ministries and government organisations?
"Parliament approved the two hours in the new Private Sector Law, which we are currently studying; hopefully when we vote on the law as a whole we will consider scrapping the provision."